Chive Fest lights up Chicago (58 HQ Photos)

Chive Fest Chicago had just ended when the GM of Soldier Field approached me and said, “I’ve been doing this a long time, but I’ve never seen anything quite like this. For example, did you know that there was not one call-in to security?? Given a festival of this scope and size, that’s basically impossible. We thought our equipment might be broken for the first hour.”

That about sums up the spirit of the Chivers when they get together.

Since the curtain closed on Chive Fest Chicago I’ve received so many emails from Chivers who made new friends, people who had never heard of the Chive who said they couldn’t believe how laid back everybody was… and many, many awesome RAK anecdotes.

My brother and I had never thrown a festival before and we wanted to go big with this in the city where theCHIVE was founded. Chicago is a place where big dreams can become a reality. Daniel Burnham, the Director and Chief Architect of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 famously said, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood”. And so Leo and I embarked on our most ambitious project to date, Chive Fest.

If you were there, you know what a magical day and night it was for everybody. For the rest I can try to encapsulate the vibrancy of Chive Fest it in the images below. Seattle is next weekend and you do not want to miss what we have planned for that event.

You guys knocked it clean out of the park and we owe you tons of beers.

Enjoy Chive Fest Chicago…

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We arrived and started drinking.

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That gates opened to AC/DC’s Thunderstruck booming…

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Matt & Kim really got the party started. Few other bands bring more energy to a live stage show. If you close your eyes, you’d swear 6 people were wailing away, nope, it’s just two flat-out talented people making the crowd bounce like I’ve never seen.

Visitors to Chicago Chive Fest got first crack at KCCO Gold Lager. And you apparently liked it because you not only drank all 120 kegs at Chive Fest dry, you proceeded to drink every bar that was carrying it in Chicago dry later that night. For a beer my brother and I used to brew in a closet in Venice Beach, seeing so many people getting tossed on The Gold was so. fucking. cool.

Between Matt and Kim and 2 Chainz’ set, a thunderstorm rolled through the festival. This is usually where things get a little rowdy at festivals. Instead, it took less than 10 minutes to wrangle thousands of calm Chivers into the safe confines of Soldier Field. You could see security literally scratching their heads. Instead of complaining, the Chivers made the most of it – singing, dancing, and chanting of USA! USA! reverberated off the walls of the fabled stadium walls.

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For many, myself included, this 30 minute delay was actually one of the high points of the festival. Being a part of so many people making lemonade out of lemons really proved that the Chive Community can truly make the best of any moment.

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The skies cleared and everybody flooded back onto the field for 2 Chainz…

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2 Chainz takes the stage…

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2 Chainz’ set was supposed to be shortened a bit due to the rain delay. He thought that was silly and just played everything instead. 2 Chainz has always been known to be a very nice guy and he doesn’t disappoint in person. It was a helluva’ show, man. Thank you.

The crowd started chanting before our headliner, Empire of the Sun, took the stage.

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We teamed up with C3 for this event. These guys and gals are absolutely the best in the business and were able to bring our vision Chive Fest to life. At C3 they have this tradition: For the first song of the opening act, they flood the space between the stage and the crowd while the headliner plays their first song. It’s pure sonic bliss.

Thank you to C3, you were every bit as good as advertised. And thanks to Brandon Barret (far left) our man at Chive Fest for all the blood, sweat, and tears you put into this memorable event.

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Our headliner, Empire of the Sun, took the stage. Empire’s live shows have become the stuff of legend. Lead vocalist Luke Steele put on an outrageous show that burned long into the evening. Simply put, it’s a spectacle.